You have just been sent the following note from Swamp Dragons (Guido) in the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league named Waiver Wire Wonders (107415)...

Guys, could you let mdrake34 and RnB on AFT know that I was indeed banned and the only reason I was given was that the members simply didn't want me anymore. I am sure those "members" were Beef and papachaz. I have been and am currently a member at over 100 forums and had never been banned once. I understand the need for forum rules and always stay WELL within them. I have asked David to reconsider my banning, but he will not reply. Drathdon, as I told Chris earlier, I would post daily just to keep conversation going. Yes, the volume on AFT did decrease with the switch to the new format, but it came to a screeching halt the day after I was banned.

- this is an email Guidi actually sent me this morning. Hopefully I dot get too much flack for sticking up for him but we can't just destroy opposing fans. He did make a lot of interesting points and have a lot of actually constructive thoughts on the Falcons.

Whether he "deserved" to be banned or not, he had a hand in it. He wasn't Mr. Innocent like he proclaimed himself to be. He did plenty of stick poking, which is just plain disrespectful when visiting someone else's house. He wasn't exactly a model citizen for an opposing fan.

I actually like talking with fans of the other teams, but not when it reduces to mindless smack talking and arrogance. Case in point - RamNut a few weeks ago, opposing fan came in for some good football talk, nary a problem. Similar to McMvp (Eagle's fan of all things) on the "official" board from what I remember. You can support your team in the face of the opposition without being a douchebag about it. It can be done. If Guido had conducted himself similar to those two I doubt there would have been an issue.

As far has "WELL within the rules", maybe he technically did not violate them, but there are times where instead of driving 54 in a 55 it is more prudent to be driving 50.

It had nothing to do with the switch to the new board. It was the timing that made it evident.

Nothing to talk about the entire off season and then a new season starts and all the members only see Saints comments all over the place.

I received numerous complaints about it and even more members saying they were gonna leave because of it.

So like it or lump it, that's the deal. I have nothing against guido, but someone has to pull the trigger.

If you guys want him back then so be it. Start a thread and have a conversation about it. This is all our forum and not mine. I just work here.

Activity has been down, we can make a push to get more people back. We've got hundreds of people registered that have posted before, that could be contacted as well. But the issue is what the landscape is gonna be like when they get here. Will we offer what they want? Are we currently doing that for the active members?

I didnt want to see Guido banned.. but I thought it would happen sooner or later anyways because of his Saints affliction.. I personally have nothing against the man. But anyway... more traffic.. more discussion.. Send out a poll to all members? see what they like and don't like? Weekly game breakdown video? more content or just different content? lets figure this out...

Just an idea, but how about some "articles" by users with original content? We could have users create their own articles and have a few "editors" that can review the articles and post them, and then include a comments section below the articles.

I think that format was the absolute best. Right now, regardless of the tags you can put on things, I think people feel trapped in posting only about the Falcons. This is a Falcons forum first and foremost, but I do think having those sections and allowing the different subgroups allows so much more creativity and discussion. Just my take on the forums in general. I miss talking other sports, I miss talking about other garbage topics, it gave this place more character.

Also, perhaps we could send out a site email to all registered users reminding them we are here and talking about the Falcons season.

There was actually a lot more traffic here when you had the sub forums. Off topic threads not getting replies by current members is simply a case of those current members not really having interest. When you create sub forums, this is when you out branch and say, hey Falcons fans come visit our forum and talkabout the Falcons and more.

You can click on the categories on the right. It will show the sub forums there. The default view is to show all of the forums.

Reason was already stated above. Not enough replies.

I can make the front page more split up, have news articles posted, have member articles posted, stuff like that. But who's gonna head that effort to make sure the change is a good one?

That would be our job? (Mods and Admin) It's our job to make sure this is a place people want to come on and Talk About The Falcons... right? I am willing to do my part whatever that may be.. I like the article idea.. we can tag the shit out of them to make them come up near the top on a google search.. But firstly I think we have to define what we want to make here.. A forum? An editorial hub with discussion? Multimedia???

Having chat always available up top has probably put a dent in the perceived level of activity as well. Every post in chat is one less post on the forums and you can only see the most recent chat posts, essentially resulting in deleted conversations and activity that visitors and members are not aware of.

Saints troll? You guys couldn't ignore things you didn't like. He had 10x the amount of solid opinions on our team than quite a few people here, and he sparked conversation, something we currently lack. Just saying. Lets ban people for disliking their opinions and comments. Makes sense.

I come to a Falcons board to hear different opinions from Falcons fans. If I want to read the opinions of a Saints fan that would openly gloat in the chat when we were losing I'd go read their forums or punch myself in the face. So yes, Saints troll.

Saints troll? You guys couldn't ignore things you didn't like. He had 10x the amount of solid opinions on our team than quite a few people here, and he sparked conversation, something we currently lack. Just saying. Lets ban people for disliking their opinions and comments. Makes sense.

I come to a Falcons board to hear different opinions from Falcons fans. If I want to read the opinions of a Saints fan that would openly gloat in the chat when we were losing I'd go read their forums or punch myself in the face. So yes, Saints troll.

This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. I think he actually would've gotten more respect if he was just outright trolling instead of doing sniper attacks.

One of the problems IMO is the chat being at the top of the main page, it takes away from new threads being made. I LOVE the chat feature during game time. I like the old setup where you had to enter the chatroom rather it being at the top of the page. Just my .02